Pudding

Some of these are blurry, but what a sweet moment to capture. Dessert of chocolate pudding from the big bowl in princess dresses.

Pictures I stole from my sister-in-law

Ashley not only has a great camera, but she takes the best pictures. I love this moment she captured between Nona and Lily Kate

Here are all the cousins on my mother's side of my family. Can you tell which one is my brother? It's pretty obvious.

Conversations in the car

I spend a LOT of time in the car with the girls. Sometimes they read, often they sing, mostly we talk.

Yesterday
Kate: Mom, how come no one in our family is a movie star?
Me: Umm, well. We just aren't (I'm quick). I mean, we just have different jobs, that's not what God has us doing. Do you know what a movie star is?
Kate: Yea Mom, like Scooby Do, he's a movie star.... I think

The other day
Kate: Mom, I'm four now because I had my birthday but I don't feel four.
Me: You mean, you don't feel any older, like you still feel the same as when you were three?
Kate: Yea (lost in thought)

Today
Kate: Let's pretend I'm a visitor at your house.
Me: Ok, Hi, where are you visiting from
Kate: Oh, I live in Wilmington. Tell me about your garden at your house.
Me: It's pretty empty right now, I'm waiting for Spring to start, I planted some see -
Kate: (interrupting) Yea, (I guess I was boring) I won't be going back to my house for a long time, I'm really sad about that. I have some beautiful flowers at my house, I really miss them.
Me: Hey visitor, I don't even know your name
Kate: My name is Liz Carpenter
Me: Wow, that's my name
Kate: (sincerely) Hmm, you are going to need to get a new name.

He, he. Little nut.

New Do

Lily Kate was long overdue for a new do. Her hair is thick and wavy and looks like this most days.

Here's her "after" shot

And one more because she likes to model. I love it, I wish it was my hair.

Beautiful day at the Park

We have had a streak of beautiful days here. We went to the park on Saturday for a family picnic and saw lots of friends there. Here's Maddie, Ava, & Lily Kate

Nathan

Sweet Charlotte

Happy Heart Day

Lily Kate and I made some chocolate covered strawberries for Parks while he was at work.

They turned out pretty well, a little coconut added for fancy factor

Parks and I have had a tradition of ordering take out on VDay for the past four yrs. We never do it so it feels like a treat. Neither person cooks, we put the kids to bed and eat in. BUT, this year Margaret Lee told us at the last minute that she would be around if we wanted to eat out. We grabbed that opportunity and had a proper date like normal people :) I love my Valentine!

Little Sponge

I just had to note this conversation we had with Charlotte last night. I was going through her papers from church and she had colored a picture of Bartimaeus, the blind man that Jesus healed. I asked her who was in the picture, expecting the usual, "I don know" that I often get. But, she said, "that man hurt his eyes, he was so sad. Jesus fix his eyes and he was all better. He was so happy!" Then in true Charlotte fashion, she yelled "YAY!" I was shocked. I often forget how much they "get" at this age, she's such a little sponge.

On a random note, my latest favorite thing that Charlotte does is, if you do anything to change your appearance (add sunglasses, take down a pony tail) she says, "oh Mom, you take off your pony. you're so precious." and she'll come and stroke my cheek. It's so funny but she really means it. Nothing like being called "precious" by your 2 yr old to boost your confidence.

She also sings Little Mermaid songs and tunes from our church Christmas play very loudly (and in totally wrong keys) to herself while she plays or rides in the car. There's a mini update on Charlotte, love that girl!

Houston Trip

Last week my sweet Nana passed away. It was a hard week saying goodbye and celebrating her life. We went to Houston and Corpus Christi for the funeral. We had some good times sitting around with the whole family in the hotel. (this is the best hotel ever, by the way, with an indoor pool, hot tub, and playground complete with a ball pit). Here's Nona and Lily Kate.

Our nephew, Scotty

Aunt Carrie breaking the rules with Halo. PS, Carrie, yesterday Lily Kate asked, "what does it mean to be allergic to kids? Your aunt Carrie said she's allergic to kids" I was laughing and curious what the context of that conversation was....

Kyle and Mom

My favorite little ones. The girls slept in bed together all week. We put Charlotte to bed and Kate would join her about 30 min later when she was alseep. I came in to Kate saying, "look, Mom, isn't she precious?", hugging little sleeping Charlotte.

Charlotte's First Haircut

Charlotte's hair was getting a little out of hand. She had a strange mullet so long as a baby and at this point we were just so happy for her to finally have some length. But, it was time to let go. So, here's BEFORE

.....and AFTER. I love the result. More full, less scraggly. Super cute.

The Lounging Princess

Speaking of BIRTHdays....

... our family will be celebrating another one in early August!!

Another Birthday Party

Yesterday Lily Kate went our friend, Sy'ana's birthday party at Sweet n Sassy. It started at her house and the big pink limo picked them up and took them there. It was quite a big deal, they got their nails painted, their hair done, and there was even a fashion show.

Kate and Maddie on the runway when we came to pick them up.


I had to get a close up of this hair, this may look better than my hair did at prom.

Happy Birthday PARTY

Sunday the girls had a joint birthday party at Gymnastics Unlimited. It was more than enough fun for everyone. I have heard at least 4 of the dads commenting about having their next birthday party there. We were warning them that they probably didn't allow beer in the foam pit. We had so much fun.

This is the foam pit, hours of fun

The purple castle cake. Lily Kate walked into the kitchen when we were about halfway through putting it together and legitimately started crying. "It doesn't look like a castle at all" She wasn't throwing a fit, she was just disappointed. Talk about a blow to my cake creating confidence. I tried to show her the pictures on line of the steps of making a castle cake and how it wasn't finished yet....then in the bottom corner of the computer screen she saw a princess cake and you know what was next, "I have a better idea, let's have a princess cake." Wow. We stuck with the castle and she was happy in the end. Meltdown avoided, gratefulness restored after a little encouragement.

Maddie & Lily Kate. There were 16 kids at the party and the is the only picture I got with any of them in it because of how active they were and how blurry my shots were. Oh well, it was fun!

One More Quote

At the park today...Lily Kate was playing on the crowded playground. She runs over to me with lots of excitement,

"Mom, that boy over there is handsome"
"WHAT?"
"Yea, his hair is really cool"
"okay, go slide"

I was shocked! I have never heard her say anything like that about a boy! Wow, I didn't see that coming at all. Apparently she likes shaggy surfer boy hair, by the way.

Quotes from today

Charlotte hands me her Ariel doll,
"Mom, can you get her bacon soup?"
"Umm, bacon soup, what's that, babe?"
"Bacon soup, bacon soup for swimmin"
Wow, she's talking about a bathing suit, never heard that one before....

We are still attempting to get the girls to sleep in the same room. Parks was standing outside the door listening to Charlotte singing loudly.
"Girls wanna have fun, girls wanna have FUN. Hey, sissy, you like that one, right, you like it?"
Kate is almost alseep
"Sure, Char, I like it. Go to sleep."
This is what almost every night sounds like. We put them to bed every night around 7/7:30. We have ridden it out until 10:30 one night before we gave up and moved Charlotte back out into her old crib. We need to stay strong, They need to get it sometime.

Tonight we rented a (very lame) kids movie about dolphins following their dreams(?) and we had a picnic in the living room with pizza by the fire, at Lily Kate's request. It was such a fun evening, minus the extremely strange movie. Parks and Charlotte were cuddling on the blanket...

until Parks fell asleep and Charlotte started crawling all over him...


She thought it was hilarious to "get Daddy while he sleepin", just walking on his legs and stomach. He woke up slightly a few times but mostly he was out...

I'm sad this one's blurry because it's my favorite. She loves him so much.

Girlfriends

Friday night Maddie & Ford came over while their parents, Sam & Trevor went on a date. Sam is due with their third very soon so we wanted to treat them to some face time that will be sparse soon. Their daughter, Maddie, is adorable, lively, super well mannered, and one of Lily Kate's personal heros. They had a blast

Snow Day

It started snowing this morning around 7:45 and it lasted about 3 1/2 hours. We only got a couple inches, but it was enough to make the scene look pretty and enough to play in by our standards.

Happy Birthday to Sweet Charlotte!

Saturday was Charlotte's Second birthday. She is trying out her independence in every form: hopping out of her bed, wanting to fasten her own carseat, get out of the car without help, walking alone in the grocery store, and the list goes on. This has been the season of, "No, no, I do it by-self!" She has started to try to negotiate before naps, "Can I just stay up, play a little bit?" She loves to play with Lily Kate, to dress up like a "pincess", to do puzzles, be read to, push her dolls in her stroller, & jump on her "shramp aline". She's a fiery one. She's not as much of a camera poser as Kate is, I can't get her to smile for the camera much, but here are some shots of the day.
I liked this one because one of Charlotte's signature expressions is the cupped hands over her mouth during laughs, when she's suprised, and here when she's saying, "wow". And Kate is showing her her very own Ariel doll that Kate got for her.

This is my attempt at a pink flower cake - at Charlotte's request

Pizza for dinner - another request. "Charlotte, for your birthday dinner, what kind of foo- "Pizza!" before I even finished my question.


This is how she spent most of the meal, one of the reasons why I am thankful for booth seating. Happy birthday Sweet Charlotte!

Christmas Eve

Parks' brother, Myers, his wife Laura, and their sweet Lillian were with us for Christmas. It was really funny, the girls were thrilled to be together. They couldn't sit still at all. We had to keep rounding them back up to keep opening presents b/c they kept leaving to go play dress up. Christmas Eve was a sweet time. We (Parks, really!) made a great fancy dinner. He read the Christmas story to the girls and we talked a bit about Jesus and sang some. The attention spans were short and the excitement level was high. It was fun.

Here are the 3 girls sitting still - a sight!

Parks reading

Goodies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer